5 tips to help you choose a niche to target

When people start working online, or are just getting online for a hobby, they sometimes forget to target a niche based on what will rank better or what they're actually interested in. You can always put up a blog or website, but if you're doing it for business and you don't know what you're going to be putting up, you're in quite of a pickle. Think about it, if you don't know what niche you're going to target, but you know you're going to put up a website to make money, that's the same as getting a tattoo on your thigh but not having any legs. You have a good idea, but you don't know exactly what that idea is, and you're just going to waste a lot of time and money figuring it out the wrong way.

Choosing the right niche can be the difference between you being the industry leader and you being a failed blogger, so putting in the time to figure out what you want to target is crucial. You don't want to waste your time, because time is money, and the more time you're wasting simply means you could have been making money but instead you decided to go off on a route that wasn't profitable. So do your research by asking, and honestly answering, the 5 following questions:

What are you interested in?
If you're interested in something, you can usually write a lot more content about it since you'll be learning along the way. You don't have to be a professional in something you're interested in, you just have to be interested lol. A lot of writers will write about something they're "interested" in, but that something is usually what they are known for and it's not really an interest now as much as it is a profitable business.

Sure, you can be profitable from what you're interested in, but in the beginning, you won't be. If you're interested, you can work through the down times of not getting any traffic, which is what you'll always have to do if you want to actually get the traffic.

What were your previous jobs?
A lot of people will work odd jobs and gain a massive amount of experience from them. The great thing about these jobs is that you have prime blogging niches with each one. You can start a blog with each job you've had, and write about it. You'd be amazed at how many people are looking up keywords related to your previous or current employer

What do you know the most about?
A great way to churn out massive amounts of content is to choose a niche in which you already know a lot about. You will be able to write, without researching much, and get content rolling out on your blog quicker than people that are just interested in the niche. You will already have done the content research over the past few years, or decades, and can just sit down and write.

The only downside about choosing something you know a lot about is that it could be a niche that is already saturated. This means there is a lot of competition and it also means it will be more difficult to rank within the search engines for your keywords.

What's your budget?
Budget is a big thing when it comes to starting up a website. It's true that you don't need any money to become successful online, but it does help you leap frog through your success timeline a great deal. A budget will simply help you bring on other writers to create content for you while you're busy, or even to add more content that you can't possibly write in a single day because you're already working the whole time. You will also need a budget for SEO, marketing, and branding since these are the big 3 things you need if you want to be successful online.

The lower your budget, the less difficult niche you should be choosing. That's because the more difficult niches like SEO, Marketing, Business, Loans, etc. are going to cost you more to build up since everyone wants to get rich in those areas lol.

How long can you wait for top rankings?
This is a biggie when it comes to choosing your niche. If you just want to publish content and rely on the search engines to eventually send you traffic, then you can choose whatever niche you want. If you're relying on profits from your website or blog, you will need to choose a niche that you can rank within quicker than others. More competitive niches, like I mentioned above, are going to take much longer to rank for since everyone is doing SEO and marketing.

If you can get into a niche where not many people are doing SEO and Marketing, you'll have a really good chance of getting seen as the authority figure and people will rely on your every word. You tell them your services are the best, they will believe you, and sign up with you instead of a competitor

In conclusion
To pick a niche easily, you need to know if you're putting up a website or blog for fun or for profit. If you're doing it for fun, then it doesn't really matter what the website is about. If you're doing it for profits, you'll want to be more strategic and choose a less popular niche with less competition so you can make money quicker. You can always start 2 websites, one in a difficult niche and one in an easy niche, so you can make money quicker and have a chance at something bigger later on

Responses (13)

Great tips as usual. I think finding your own niche is best when you know a lot about the topic but also it's better when you consider other factors if you are planning to make money off of it since it becomes part of your business plan. Some niches might be good to use because it is so specific that you don't end up with a lot of competition and the market is a little less saturated but as you've said you also have to consider the factors like how long it would take for you to get ranked or maybe even how profitable that topic can really be. In most cases, I think most topics no matter how niche can turn out to be profitable since there will always be an audience for most things you can think of but it's important to figure out the limitations.

All niches can be profitable, some more than others, but it doesn't always mean you'll make money from them lol Some niches can make you $10,000+ per day if you were ranked on the first page, but if you're not employing an entire team to do the work for you day in and day out, you're never going to win that battle.

I like choosing medium difficulty niches because I can still rank for all the easier keywords as well as the more difficult ones, without investing 6+ months into the work and not seeing anything out of it. Smaller niches are easier to brand yourself in as well, so that's a great reason to pick your second or third niche choice

Smaller niches make less money, but you can rank 10x faster in them and make money much quicker. You can even replicate your methods and have 10 websites making money 10x faster than one difficult niche

I think budget part is very important. Because some niche with low budget don't earn much. And some niche with high buddget have their own low days. So depending on how we are seeing things. I guess we have to understand that some of the time people pick and choose their niche to work around. I am sure that in near future things would be lot different though. And we can learn from PPC data and pick the niche that can have better conversion.

I have sadly learned the hard way of how important it is to choose a niche where you can actually be relevant in the term of the ranks. I remember a while back when I didn't know how important this aspect is, I picked a really hard niche because I didn't do my research prior to deciding.

That's why your article is great - it is extremely important to pick niches and later on, keywords where you can actually rank high up in the search engines.

I always think it's hard to pick a niche, and I can't seem to understand what it is all about. After reading your tips, I am more confirm in what I want to offer. I agree that when we are interested in something, we will start to study and find out more about it, and we might become a professional later. I have read about this from many mom bloggers, and I suppose as none of a parent is a professional parent at the beginning, we are all learning along the way. I also like what you said, all niches are profitable. Again, thanks a lot for sharing your great tips!

If you consider profitability from day 1. Then it's hard to pick a niche. Because not always you can monetize what you do. And that's why you have to think of keywords which are used by people to buy something. I guess in such condition it's better to pick and choose the niche the right way.

Thanks for your reply. I guess I have always been thinking what I can offer, but that has already been offered by many people out there, and I haven't find out what I can stand out. Do you mean I should think what people need or want first?

There is still a long way for me to go as I don't really have any sense of business yet, but I am learning, and I am glad this is a platform where I can learn much from you guys.

It doesn't matter if you land into niche first or last. Every year many people start food blog. After 2 years or so that blog goes and replaced by someone else. So it doesnt mater because nobody stays on top forever in the business. That's the thing about the business and niche.

I think that what is being suggested and what is being conveyed and discussed is the importance of having a niche which you are passionate about, knowledgeable about, and willing to research. I try to bring all of these things to the table as much as possible in my content creation; I think that I also lean towards writers who do the same. There's nothing better than a strong writer who is very experienced with his or her subject and also has a tone or delivery which demonstrates a fervor for the topic at hand.

I think that says it all – what do you know most about. Why choose a niche that is alien to you? One writer said that a niche that you don’t know well can teach you something, added knowledge or pioneering. But whatever the reason, I don’t think it is a good idea to choose a niche that you are not comfortable with. When you love the niche and you know the niche very well then you can write from the top of your head, quickly and factually too. In other words, it would be a breeze to write something about the niche you love.

I think those tips are great for those who want to start a blog. You will have less difficulty making money and writing about a topic that actually interests you as opposed to one that is just something you think other people are interested in. You can write with enthusiasm about the topics that you know well.

When I decided to launch an ecommerce site, I chose lingerie niche. After a lot of research I found that there is money to be made on this niche. I bought a domain and began building the site. Then I discovered that I have never written on this niche. Thus, I hired a writer to develop contents. I paid a lot of money for the contents. I finally launched my website, When I decided to use google ads, I found that it was against google terms to use adsense on the site that features people in few clothes. My site had a lot of pictures of bikini models therefore I could not use adsense. I began looking for affiliate companies. Currently, I am using amazon, commission junction and linkshare, however, I am not making money.

January 20, 2018, 8:38 am

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